Snakeskin Book

One day Ian Gillick tells his lover's boyfriend, "I woke up in your bed and realised that I'd had enough of being a parasite. Ultimately, if you steal enough identities, you lose your own." Computer genius, urban philanthropist and penitent sinner, Ian's journey towards enlightenment is crawling with obstacles. Back in 1997, he performed the Original Swindle, a simple yet beautiful computer banking scam, netting him untold riches. But the cyber-world is ever-evolving, continually shedding its former skins, and the swindle is close to being uncovered. Ian has to ditch his gilded lifestyle, returning undercover to Britain where a few people, including a wise-cracking killer called Jeremy, and Archie, an ear-wax collecting master-criminal, are more than a little anxious to find him. Meanwhile, after a chance encounter on a transatlantic aeroplane, despairing geneticist Darren returns home from a conference of unspeakable dullness to discover that, along with his luggage, his identity has been stolen, and in its place, a fortune he didn't know he had. As Darren and Ian's orbits collide and entangle, all boundaries between host and parasite become gloriously confused. John McCabe combines the dry wit of Kingsley Amis with the surreal vision of Kurt Vonnegut, and in this, his third novel, he has engineered a laboratory-monster of outstanding comic genius. Riddled with side-splitting observations and mindlessly diverting dialogue, Snakeskin is that rare breed--a book that simultaneously thrills, amuses and demands to be read again. --Matthew BaylisRead More